


Burden of Proof

by kisahawklin



Category: Wonderfalls
Genre: F/M, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2007, recipient:Greensilver
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-25
Updated: 2007-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:51:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron has a stuffed animal experience.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burden of Proof

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Greensilver (Trelkez)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trelkez/gifts).



> Thanks to Greensilver for the great prompt and aphrodite_mine for a great (and swift!) beta.

Aaron stretched and rolled over, only slightly surprised when Janet wasn't there. Mahandra. He knew he should call her by her chosen name, but he just couldn't. She'd been Janet since they met when he was in third grade and Jaye had brought home the poor, mud-soaked girl she'd nearly run over with her bike. He helped clean her up and promised not to tell mom and dad, and Janet had been pretty much a fixture in their lives since then.

He figured, if he had to, he could avoid the situation with endearments. He was becoming fond of 'snookems,' though he still liked the traditional 'darling' - and it made Janet smack him, which was good because it gave him an arm to latch on to and reel her in for a kiss.

Mostly, though, he avoided the issue by not addressing her directly.

"Honey?" he called. She wouldn't have left in a freakout, not after they came out to the family last night. He smiled at the mental reference, thinking of Sharon's admission on the heels of their 'announcement' that she was a lesbian. Like that surprised anyone. Mom had handled it particularly well, simply switching gears and trying to set her up with the young woman who edited her books.

No answer from the closet or laundry pile. Maybe Janet had to work? It didn't matter, he supposed, he really needed to work on his thesis today. He was starting to dread the dissertation, the familiarity of academic religious study taking a back seat to the immediacy of Jaye's spiritual awakening. She didn't recognize the contact for what it was: proof of the kind every person who yearns for spiritual certainty longs for. Aaron had talked to the animals, sat them all down and tried to get them to talk to him. He spent hours, staring down creamers and stuffed animals and welcome mats. It had finally occurred to him, though, that it wasn't about the animals. It was about Jaye.

He had been depressed about that for a couple of weeks afterward. He was faithful. He believed. Why was it always the non-believers who got the proof that he craved? He knew the old adage. 'Those who believe do not need proof, those who need proof will never believe.' He had tried to be supportive of Jaye, urging her along the path that some divine power laid out before her, but it took all his willpower not to throttle her when the animals seemed to speak to her in front of him.

Eventually the frustration had settled down, mostly with the arrival of Janet into his life. His more personal life. Sometimes sex was the perfect way to get rid of existential drama.

He tried to pull his laptop out from under his bed by the power cord, but it was caught on something. The power cord detached itself, and he was left holding it, bemused. He had only set the lapop barely under his bed last night. He climbed out of bed and knelt down next to it, stretching around the laptop to see what it was tangled up with. He pulled out the sad looking donkey from Jaye's collection of animals and gritted his teeth. He had been surprised to feel relieved when Jaye had taken her animals back. Without them sitting around, he was no longer unworthy, he was just normal. Looking at the donkey, a twinge of jealousy lodged itself in his chest. He threw it to the side and stretched his arm out to reach his laptop. It was nearly under the middle of the bed, how the hell had it gotten dragged over there? He had just gotten his fingertips on it when Janet - Mahandra - came in and called his name. He lifted his head to respond, striking one of the metal support bars under the bed with a lot more force than he thought his neck could muster on its own. His vision started to grey out a little, and when he triumphantly pulled the laptop out from under the bed and stood up, he felt a little woozy.

"What the hell were you doing?" she asked.

"Getting my laptop," he answered, holding it up unsteadily. He sat down heavily on the bed, and Janet sat down next to him.

"Are you okay?"

"Hit my head," he said, rubbing the sore spot. He was going to have a nice sized goose egg for sure. "I'm fine, no permanent damage."

Janet fussed over him, insisting that he stay in bed and work. He wasn't going to turn her down, it wasn't like it'd be a hardship. She even brought him breakfast in bed. Granted, it was only toast and orange juice, but it was the thought that counted.

She went off to work and Aaron opened his laptop, staring at the blinking cursor for a while. Comparing the calm of zen meditation to the frenzy of speaking in tongues was dancing just outside his grasp today. The donkey he had thrown earlier was resting on its head, looking even more forlorn than it usually did.

"What?" Aaron asked, not really expecting an answer. Even though he knew the animals were only the means of the message, he couldn't help but anthropomorphize them. He had done it with his GI Joes too, so he didn't feel too guilty about it. He got up and righted the donkey, and then decided to bring it to Jaye. There was no point in letting it hang around here when it might have something to say to her.

He got dressed and dumped his dishes in the sink, downing two Advil on his way out the door. His head was pounding, and not just where he smacked it on the bed.

By the time he got to Jaye's trailer, he was feeling a little woozy again, so he was disappointed to find that she wasn't home. He didn't really feel like driving back to the Barrel right at the moment, but he supposed he might as well, seeing how he was out already. His vision was greying out a little, and he thought he might go home and take a nap after he dropped the little ass off. It seemed to be looking at him with its sorrowful little eyes, and he gave it a pat on the head.

"It's okay, buddy. I'm bringing you back to Jaye."

He started seeing double right before he got to the Barrel. He wasn't sure at first, thought there might be a convention of twins in town, but then he saw two Janets, and he knew that was definitely wrong. He picked up the donkey and jogged inside, ignoring his now throbbing headache. Jaye was googly eyed over the bartender as always, and Aaron took a seat at the bar, setting the donkey down facing Jaye.

He crossed his arms and put his head down, his eyes closing against the sudden wave of nausea that threatened to make him puke on himself. As soon as he put his arms down, he could feel drowsiness take over like a warm blanket on his thoughts. _A nap_ , he thought. _Just a little nap_.

Just before he drifted off, he thought he heard someone who sounded oddly like Goofy say, "Wake him up."

When he woke up in the hospital, somewhere between the x-ray and the CAT scan, Jaye and Mahandra were sitting quietly by his bedside, talking in low whispers. Jaye was holding the donkey, and she looked at it for a second before she glanced up at him, noticing he was awake.

"Way to go, genius. You gave yourself a concussion on your own bed."

Aaron nodded sagely. "Wake him up?" he asked, as Mahandra came around the bed and took his hand. Suddenly, seeing her as Mahandra seemed easy. Right, even.

Jaye's eyes widened to comic proportions, and for the first time since she was seven and caught stealing their mother's pearls to adorn her stuffed poodle, Jaye was speechless. Aaron smiled, kissed Mahandra's hand, and ruminated on the essential difference between believing and knowing.

**Author's Note:**

> [To post a comment](http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/cgi-bin/comment.cgi?filename=37/burdenof&filetype=html&title=Burden%20of%20Proof) on this story at the old Yuletide archive.
> 
> Read [posted comments](http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/archive/37/burdenof_cmt.html).


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